Rear View Mirror: 1967 Ford Bronco

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The original Broncos were my favorites! I had a friend who owned one back in the day and we actually went off-roading up a logging road to a fire tower somewhere in the Adirondacks. What a blast. His Bronco was the six with the 3 on the tree, and we practiced “tread lightly” before it became fashionable to do so, as if we had a choice on that trail. They are selling for quite a bit nowadays. My friend should have hung on to his.

I hadn’t seen one for years (I doubt that their survival rate was very high), then found this one locally (’67 pickup) and another (’71 wagon) out in Arizona, within months of each other. Spartan interiors, but cool as hell. Another old Ute that I haven’t seen in ages is the International Scout. When I was 15, I talked a guy into letting me work for him at his used car lot. I got big money ($4 for three hours), but the real benefit was hanging out with all the cool cars. He had a Scout (Green, with a plow) that I used to drool over. Must’ve been fairly new, it hadn’t rusted out yet. He also had a ’67 LeMans Convertible – pale blue, with a 4-speed. God, I wanted that car. I was surprised to find out that, even with my big time pay check, I couldn’t get anybody to float a loan to a 15 year old kid for a car that he would’ve gotten into a world of trouble in.

Damn banks! Couldn’t they see what a good risk you were earning that kind of money?
I remember the IH Scouts too, but never set foot in one. At some time in the 70’s, when I actually had the money to make such a purchase, and before they were popular in the mainstream, I tried to get a local Toyota dealer to talk to me about an FJ. (Were they called a Land Cruiser back then?). They didn’t have any in stock and didn’t seem to want to bother with me, so they missed out on a potential sale.

They probably had several models, but the only Toyota Land Cruiser that I remember from back then was the FJ40, which looked like the Jeep CJ. Might well be more obscure these days that either the Bronco or the Scout, as the time between sightings of FJ’s from that era (at least in my world) is measured in years.

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